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Sunday, November 17, 2013

Whether the purpose of your trip to Vietnam is business or pleasure, you want to make sure you have all your ducks in a row before you leave your home and head for the local airport. No doubt you will have already taken care of the essentials, like booking your hotel room and perhaps a rental car, and making sure you have printed your airline tickets.

You will also want to make sure you have your entry documents in place before you head off for your trip to Vietnam. As with any other foreign destination, you will need to have a valid passport in order to enter the country. You will need to make sure that the expiration date of that passport is no more than six months away, so if it is about to expire it is important to get it renewed well in advance.

It is also important to know that you need more than just a passport to enter Vietnam. All travelers to Vietnam, whether they are traveling on business or pleasure, are required to have a valid visa before they can leave the airport and enter the city. Visitors to Vietnam have a number of options when it comes to obtaining that entry visa, including traveling to an embassy and filling out paperwork.

If you live near an embassy, getting there may not be much of a problem, although you may have to deal with some hassles relating to paperwork, limited hours, etc. But if you are not lucky enough to live near an embassy, getting that entry visa in time or your trip can be a lot harder. In that case, you may be looking at a long drive, or an expensive plane ride, just to get to the embassy. Even after you arrive, you could face those same short hours and other problems.

That is why the country of Vietnam has tried to make it easier for visitors to their country to obtain the entry visas they need without the hassle of going to an embassy. The Vietnam Immigration Department, which is a branch of the government of Vietnam, has implemented what is known as the Vietnam visa on arrival program to help those travelers.

This program allows visitors to Vietnam, including those traveling for business and pleasure, to submit the necessary paperwork before they leave home. After that paperwork and the necessary identification documents have been submitted, the traveler receives an official approval letter. When the traveler arrives in Vietnam, he or she simply presents that official approval letter and receives the necessary visa.

The Vietnam visa on approval program is easy to use, and quite convenient for travelers of all ages. Unfortunately, some embassies have been raising questions about the legitimacy of the program, even suggesting that the approval letters provided to travelers are fraudulent. We would like to stress to all of our clients, and our potential clients, that this is simply not the case.

In reality, the Vietnam visa on arrival process is legitimate, and the Vietnamese government officials who administer it are quite familiar with the requirements. We can assure you that all of the documents you receive are legitimate, and that should allow you to rest easy as you plan your once in a lifetime trip to Vietnam.